Hey guys, I am really sorry that it took me so long to update this. You guys didn't deserve to wait 2 weeks just for this chapter. Sorry that it's not long, but we have been in the process of moving so my time has been cut pretty badly. I will be trying to update more often for ya'll. That being said, hope ya'll enjoy!
" Looks like he's dreaming." Cyborg stated, monitoring Beast Boys brain waves on the screen in front of him. After they had found him, they had taken him straight to the med bay, where they had hooked him up to the medical computer. On it was his current heart rate, brain activity, and a full diagram of his internal organ structure.
Cyborg had found his vitals to be normal. His blood pressure initially was high, as was his heart rate, but nothing had been damaged. He found that odd, considering how intense the energy levels had been when he had read them. Normally, an energy spike like that could easily have damaged any vital organs, with a possibility of completely shutting down the entire repertory system.
So what happened with their now unconscious friend? Right now, that was the question being asked by the two standing over him.
" Was there an electrical surge?" Rose asked.
" I've already checked into that; wires are completely fine, and plus even if they weren't they couldn't have made an energy pulse that big."
Rose leaned back in her chair and crossed her arms, trying to go through other possible scenarios as to what happened. Overload couldn't have been responsible, as he would have attacked the rest of the tower. Control Freak was still in prison.
None of the answers made sense to them, and they would always find themselves back to square one.
" One thing is for sure," Cyborg said, looking at his unconscious green friend." We won't be going anywhere with B' like this." He noticed the changelings heart rate increase, like he saw something that made him excited. Since he was dreaming, he put it off. Ones' dreams could do that, so it was nothing to be concerned about.
Rose leaned back in her chair and propped her feet up on the foot of Beast Boys' bed, staring at Cyborg with her brow raised." So, what now?" She inquired," Can't just leave this whole murder case untouched."
Cyborg nodded as he rubbed his chin he thought about her question. She was right, there was no way they were going anywhere but it would be wrong to leave this whole thing alone. The police were stretched, and the longer they waited the colder the trail would get.
Currently, there would be no one else that he could think of that was really experienced in that particular field who could handle it. The titans he had called were good in a fight and could track a common criminal, but they weren't detectives. And he didn't know too many among the list of heroes who were good detectives.
Except for…
" We could call him in." Cyborg replied, after a moments thought.
Rose paused a moment, then shook her head as a frown crossed her lips." No, he'd never agree to it." She stated," You know he quit the whole super-hero-detective business."
" He owes me, and he knows it." Cyborg replied," Plus, he's still one of the best at what he does."
" Did." Rose corrected." What he did, not what he does. You get away from that too long and you lose your edge."
" Not birdie boy," Cyborg then pulled his communicator up." He doesn't have a communicator, but he does have a phone." He began dialing." He's our best shot at this."
The cybernetic had modified the communicators to reach cell phones whenever the need arose. The features were bare minimum in that respect, with only call or text and could only be dialed after a security clearance encryption was established. This insured that, for one, the communicator could not be traced or hacked. Plus, it also kept the titans from using them frivolously, as many of the heroes still had their teenager tendencies.
The dial tone rang several times before a very familiar voice came over the phone.
" Hello?" That so very sweetly innocent voice came back at him.
" Hey Star!" Cyborg responded," It's Cyborg."
_
Rose raised an eyebrow at Cyborg. The fact that Star had answered instead of Robin set something off in her brain. It being his phone, he most likely carried it with him all the time.
However, her attention was distracted as she heard a series of rapid beeps. When she looked toward the changeling, she realized his heart rate had sped up dramatically. Whatever was going on, he wasn't having a dream anymore: he was having a nightmare.
" Cyborg?" She said to the cybernetic, who had his own look of concern on his face from something she had apparently missed in the conversation. All the while, Beast Boys heart rate continued increasing, as did his brain activity.
Immediately, she stood up and began running diagnostics on him: Elevated blood pressure, dramatic increase in epinephrine. Not only was he having a nightmare, it was one that was sending his mind into a state of shock and instinct in his own sleep. She looked at the Cybernetic and said again," Cyborg, you need to look at this." He was still there, communicator to his ear as he listened to Starfire talk.
" What?" He asked, confusion in his face. Whatever it was, it had shocked him to a point of obliviousness toward their current situation." What do you mean Rob is-"
All of a sudden, Beast Boy had shot up to a sitting position, eyes wide open as he began yelling," Raven! Raven!"
Cyborg shot up as well, moving to secure his green friend as he began to struggle. Rose had to jump in as well as the changeling struggled against their grip. They were holding on, but only just.
" Grass stain, snap out of it!" Cyborg said through gritted teeth as he held his friend in place. But he didn't react to the voice, not any voice from anyone. All he did was shout the name, over and over again.
"Raven! Raven!"
_
Five minutes earlier…
Beast boy watched as the argument between Rose was sorted out. Apparently, Ravager was fond of mud slinging in cars, a fact which Cyborg figured out a little too late when he had decided to let her take the car for a spin. Quite unusual for Cyborg to let someone drive his car, but Rose had a good set of sad puppy eyes, thus he was caught off guard and unable to resist.
Meanwhile he was still trying to figure out what it was he was actually seeing. Was it possible this was a memory of his? He did remember this event, and the memory of what had happened when he fiddled with the HDMI cable had returned to him. But if it was a memory, then why wasn't he seeing it from his perspective? A memory would only make sense if he could see it from his perspective.
Another possibility may have been that it was Ravens memory. The mirror was a portal into her mind, after all, and so it would make sense that her mind would contain memories. But that posed more problems than the previous thought. Along with not seeing it in her perspective, if Raven was dead, then how was it he was seeing her memories? Did the mirror still work even after death?
Things just wouldn't add up no matter how he sliced it. For every one answer there were at least three question because of it.
He was so deep in thought, that he only now just caught the fact that the room had grown darker. As he stood from his sitting position, he also took note of what he heard: nothing.
All the voices from the other titans had faded out, and they were no longer in the room. Huh, is it that late already? Beast Boy thought, I couldn't have been here that long.
At that point, he began to walk toward the main room door. He then noticed how cold the room had gotten, as if someone had left the A/C on and forgot to turn it off. He began rubbing his arms, and then started to notice the room was getting even darker. Frighteningly so, actually. He looked out the window, the sun was still in it's same spot, and the lights of the main room were still on.
This wasn't a natural darkness, the changeling realized as his pace had subconsciously increased to the point that he nearly ran toward the door. The darkness grew further, and before Beast boy could reach the door, it enveloped the entire room to the point of an abyss. With the darkness came an aching cold he could not explain.
He froze where he was, unable to move for the moment, as he felt something else come over him; an emotion. He trembled, his hands clenched in fists as he felt it was over his entire body.
As he looked back, he began to see a red glow. When he looked completely behind him, what he saw made him want to scream in fright: Those four, glowing red eyes staring through him.
Frozen in his place, all he could do was stare as he felt something hook around his leg. Before he could react, it gave a sharp pull, yanking him off his feet as it dragged him to itself. As he began struggling against it, he tried to grab for his legs, feeling for the tendrils that had grabbed in in pitch darkness.
Beast boy changed into a gorilla as he began to tearing at the tendrils wrapped around his ankles. No sooner had he started, however, did more come and envelop his arms. Before he knew it, he was on his back, tendrils wrapped around his legs, arms and neck. He could not even see any thing, it was far too dark. All he could see were those four red eyes glaring at him.
All of a sudden, there was a horrific howl. At the same time there was a warped scream as they eyes all of a sudden widened and he felt it's grip loosen on him. As he began to free himself, he began noticing tears in the darkness, as elongated slashes appeared in it. More tears and more warped screams filled the air around him.
However, as the slashes became more numerous, there was another scream that echoed. It set off every protective reflex he had as he jumped to his feet and looked to the tears. Instantly, he turned into a kangaroo and jumped through the tear. He then screamed at the top of his lungs as he saw a beast, tearing at a certain empath in rage form. Only now, she was returning to normal, and had just enough time to scream in pain as the beast delivered it's next blow.
"Raven!" Beast boy cried, watching as the claws were coming down in one last savage blow." Raven!"
_
"He's completely irate!" Rose yelled as she tried to hold him in place," Give him a tranquilizer or something!"
" I can't, he's moving way too much!" Cyborg yelled in reply. Ever since Beast Boy had awoken, he had gone ballistic and screamed Ravens name over and over as he fought to get away. It didn't seem as if he was aware of them, only that something was holding him. Strangely, he had not shifted into an animal form yet, but that was not noticed by Cyborg. What was noticed was that the changeling was much stronger in his normal form than he looked.
Rose grunted in annoyance," Hold on," With that, she let go for a second, causing Cyborg to adjust his grip before Beast Boy could get away.
" What are you-" He never finished, before he saw a blur of motion and felt the changelings head snap towards him. With all that, the fighting ceased, as Beast Boy's eyes glazed over. He began to mumble before finally falling back against the bed. He was still semi-conscious, but he was so dazed that it had the same effect as if he had been knocked out. When he looked at Rose, she was rubbing the knuckles on her right hand." What did you do?"
" I gave him the original tranquilizer, at a dosage of one punch to the face." She replied matter of factly." Subject should now be calm for the next five to ten minutes, give or take." She said, gesturing with her hands.
He shook his head as he stared at the girl," Was that completely necessary?"
She scoffed as she crossed her arms, her eyes rolling." You're welcome."
Cyborg stepped back as he picked up the communicator." You still there, Star?"
" What happened with friend Beast Boy?" She asked, apparently having heard the ordeal with him suddenly awakening and screaming. He began to explain to her what had happened, all the while picking up something odd in the background, like a gust of wind, but he couldn't quite place it.
" After we found him, we took him straight here to the med bay." He said," After monitoring him for a bit, he starts dreaming and then we call up ya'll to get Robin on the case." He then raised a brow." Speaking of which, what this whole thing about Robin?"
" I will explain more when I arrive, friend Cyborg." Starfire replied. In that moment, he realized the wind he was hearing must have been her flying through the air.
" Whoa Star, you don't need to come all the way here."
" I disagree. If my friends are in danger, and there is such incidents as these, then it is completely necessary I come with you." With that, she hung up the phone.
Cyborg shook his head. It had been over seven years since Robin and Starfire had left the team. They had since moved, incognito, out in the country. Close enough to Jump City where they could visit once in a while without difficulty, but far enough to avoid unnecessary attention. It would take her an hour or so to fly here.
At that moment, he heard a loud groan and looked to see his green friend rising up from his bed. He clutched his head as he looked around at the room.
" What happened?" He asked groggily, rubbing his head in an attempt to sooth the dull ache that engulfed his head and face." Who got the license number of the truck that hit me?"
Rose scoffed." I didn't hit you that hard, ya big baby."
The changeling looked around he room, finding himself in the med bay of the Tower. The two titans stared at him, as if they were anticipating him to suddenly jump out the window.
So he had been dreaming about everything? Everything he had seen was just his own imagination within his head? He shook his head as he looked at his friends." Why am I in the med bay?"
The cybernetic paused before answering," We found you knocked out on the floor in Ravens room. You've been here for about an hour, B'."
The changeling shook his head, then swung his legs over the side of the bed and tried to stand." Is the ship prepped?" He asked.
Cyborg put his hands on the changelings shoulders as he sat him back down." Oh no, you're not going out there while you're like this." Cyborg answered." We don't even know what made you go unconscious, let alone what you saw that made you go ballistic."
Beast Boy looked at his friend." I'm fine, Cy'. I just had a… dream." He replied.
Cyborg scoffed at his answer." That wasn't no dream, B': that was a nightmare."
" You were screaming Ravens' name over and over again." Rose put in." Whatever you saw was enough to make you oblivious to anything around you."
Beast boy paused irritably." Ok, so it was a nightmare. Who doesn't have one every once in a while?" With that the changeling stood and began walking to the door." Now come on, we're heading to China."
" The Urals are in Russia, B'." Cyborg corrected." And we're not going anywhere until Starfire gets here."
This caused the changeling to stop dead in his tracks. Slowly, he turned and faced his Cybernetic friend." Star is coming? I thought that they…"
" It's just her coming. That's something else I wanna talk to you about." He walked up to his friend and put a hand on his shoulder. Instantly, the changeling knew this couldn't be good. Almost immediately, his suspicions were confirmed when Cyborg answered," Robin's been missing for the last eight weeks."